The grail
by Writer207
Summary: What does the new Logan High School Halloween play to do (produced by Oliver) with eight famous paintings, one very old mirror, an ex-villain and an ancient grail from Incan times? The answer is: nothing, but now they do, because Gus screwed up big time. Twice. Seriously, if he hadn't tried to help Oliver, they wouldn't have been in this mess. (Skoliver, eventually)
1. Trailer

**The Grail**

 **This trailer has been approved for all audiences**

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 **What does the new Logan High School Halloween play to do (produced by Oliver) with eight famous paintings, one very old mirror, an ex-villain and an ancient grail from Incan times?**

"There's no villain in here, is there?" The Incinerator asked Kaz, who shook his head in response. The Incinerator, clearly annoyed, sighed and took of his mask. "The next time there's an emergency, tell me how urgent it is. Seriously, do you know how long it took me to get this suit on?"

 **The answer is: nothing, but now they do, because Gus screwed up big time.**

"These are supposed to be in a museum in Brazil," Jordan said after looking at the official shipping documents. Spark – who still goes to Logan High as a student named Alice – looked at the documents and confirmed it was true.

"How did Gus even get these two mixed up?" She wondered out loud, looking at the paintings. They probably were worth millions.

 **Twice.**

When Gus saw the grail, he had no idea why someone would leave it standing on a crate. He picked it up and tried to read the symbols written on it. He wasn't fluent in the old Incan language, or else he would've translated it.

He noticed the grail had a lid. Out of curiosity, he pulled the lid of off the grail, ignoring the late protests of his friends.

 **Seriously, if he hadn't tried to help Oliver with the play, they wouldn't have been in this mess.**

"Where's Gus?" Alan asked, looking around to see where Gus was. He was just slightly concerned about the floating mirror and the eleven wooden boxes that had appeared out of nowhere. Instead, he wanted to know where he was.

"Found him!" He heard Kaz say. Alan turned around, wondering why Kaz sounded so nervous. Gus was waving at them – he didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he was trapped inside one of the paintings.

 **So, now they have to save Gus from being trapped in there forever.**

"Can't we just leave him there?" Jordan asked, "'cause this is much more enjoyable than him being near me." The others shot their annoyed looks at her, causing her to eventually try and help them save Gus. That, and the way out was blocked.

 **The wrath of the Incan sun god worshipper is upon them.**

"You do realize we didn't do anything to you, right?" Skylar asked the Incan man, who was slightly visible in the floating mirror. He had just told them he was going to get revenge for something that happened centuries ago.

 **Complete a task, you can open a box.**

The last seconds of the song played when the last jewel was placed on the statue. For a few seconds, everyone held their breath. Then, the light under the boxes lit up green, telling them they successfully completed the second task.

 **Pick the wrong box, you join Gus.**

Spark walked towards a pair of boxes standing close to each other. Unfortunately, they stood between the paintings. When she made her final choice, she leaned over to open it.

 ** _Starring:_**

 **Gus Collins**

"You can hear me?" he asked and when he had heard a response to his question, he sighed. "Great! So much for me-time!"

 **Jordan Delva**

"We have these pricy painting here," she began with a big smile on her face, "and in Brazil, they're stuck with our set! I'd like to see the look on their faces!"

 **Kenny Gordon**

Kenny looked at the grail, eyes nearly an inch away from it, "If this grail really was made by the Incas, we should stay as far away from it as possible because yes, this can be extremely dangerous."

 **Spark**

"I will not allow you to play hero when you don't even know what it means, Gordon," She said in a dangerous way, "I don't want that boy to rely on a flamethrower to be saved."

 **Alan Diaz**

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Alan asked. It was an unnecessary question, for the next second he realized why they looked at him. He gulped. "Oh no."

 **Kaz Gordon**

"It wants us to cook something?" He said, looking at the dirty cauldron that appeared out of nowhere. He huffed, "If it wanted to cook, I would've taken those classes…"

 **Oliver Pyne**

"Shut it!" He yelled, silencing Jordan an Kaz. "If we want to do this, we need to do this together – without fighting. Please don't fight. We can only succeed if we're in this together."

 **and Skylar Storm**

"What?" she exclaimed, "No, we can't give up on them now! They're counting on us. We can't let them down. Not now." The others, especially Alan, remained silent after she spoke.

 ** _The grail_**

After finding out what they had to do for the next task, Skylar's face turned into a grimace. She could clearly see Kaz did not like this as well.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he said, shaking his head. He did not want to do what they had to do and neither did Skylar. Yet, if they wanted to save their friends, they had to do it.

 **Coming October 12th in the Mighty Med Archive on Fanfiction. net**

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 **Hey guys! Welcome to my new Mighty Med story! Halloween's coming closer, so I wanted to write a story with that theme. Only, in this story, Halloween's a week away and they're not really gonna go trick or treating. Instead, I hope I can keep you entertained with what I have in mind. I intended this story to be suspenseful and,** **if I do it right, some humor. Hopefully, the trailer convinced you to read this story** **(I just felt like making one). See ya in two days!**

 **-Writer207**


	2. Open the grail

**As promised, here is the first chapter of my Halloween story! Things are starting off slowly, but I'm sure I can keep you entertained with the first chapter. Before I forget, you probably noticed, but I added a sort of OC into the story, namely Kaz' older brother Kenny. I decided to give my own twist to him, making him a rehabilitated villain working for the League. I mean, Kaz' older brothers are all in jail, and I think there's a chance one of them is a villain.** **The action will definitely start next chapter, but this chapter was real fun to write nonetheless. And now, to respond to the reviews the trailer got:**

 _TTLKABC:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Well, here's the first chapter. I'm sure you'll love it._

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _Yes, Gus indeed messes everything up. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _TKDP:_ _Thanks for reviewing! I needed eight people and Stephanie wouldn't fit in, so why not Spark? Yeah, that task indeed is dangerous... for me it is... you'll get it when we've reached that point._

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

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This may have been one of the worst days of his life, not counting his numerous adventures at Mighty Med.

The school had asked Oliver if he wanted to do another play this year, after the success of his improvised play last year. Yet, that day, Oliver was at home after catching the flu, so they asked Kaz what Oliver would answer.

And now they had to put up another play in a short amount of time. Oliver had been mad at Kaz, until he realized his best friend had asked Jordan, Gus, Alan, Skylar and Spark – who still goes to Logan High as "Alice" – if they wanted to help him. Gus was especially helpful this year. He had made sure they wouldn't have to play it in the school, but rented a theater building. Other than that, he had already ordered the set of their play.

That was the only positive aspect of the story. They had a place and a set, but they had no idea what they play would be about, nor had they started writing the script yet. They also didn't have costumes yet and their play should be ready and rehearsed before next Friday, when it would premiere. He heard Gus already sold some tickets, so they had to hurry up now. For their first meeting in the building after school, they came eye to eye with the set.

Kaz grabbed his phone and texted someone. Oliver was the only one who noticed Kaz was looking at his phone, while Alan, Skylar and Jordan were looking at the set.

"Who are you texting?" Oliver asked. Kaz shrugged.

"I've texted Kenny to come over here." he responded. Oliver's eyes widened.

"Your brother's coming?" Jordan asked and Kaz nodded, not looking at her. He already knew Jordan didn't really like Kenny, because he just came out of prison. Oliver and Skylar were worried, too, but about something completely different.

"Kenny is coming?" Oliver asked, "He's coming here? Kaz, what did you send him?"

"Relax, I just told him it's an emergency. He'll be here soon." Kaz said, sure his older brother would be here very soon. And that's what worried Oliver and Skylar. Kenny Gordon had been in a high-security prison, never allowed to go out of the cell unless he had lunch. During his time there, he hadn't seen the sun nor did he breathe fresh air and his family wasn't allowed to visit him because visitors weren't allowed unless they had a special clearance. Three months ago, he was released for good behavior.

"Did you tell him he could leave his flamethrowers at home?" Skylar asked Kaz.

"That's what I forgot to tell him." He said and Oliver and Skylar sighed. Kaz truly was unaware of the fact that Kenny could come in there anytime wearing the suit, which could blow the big secret they've been keeping since their first day.

They wanted to say something else, but they didn't have a chance – the door flew open and the Incinerator walked in. He wore his trademark red and black coat with long sleeves, complete with mask and flamethrowers, ready to use. Alan screamed and turned into a fly: he was lucky Jordan didn't see him transform. Jordan wasn't exactly scared by the costume, but wanted to know who was in there. She still suspected heroes (and therefore, villains) were real. Skylar sighed while Oliver shook his head.

The Incinerator lowered his flamethrowers, looking around. Eventually, he just watched Kaz. "There's no villain in here, is there?" he said. Kaz smiled awkwardly and came closer to the Incinerator.

"Hey, Kenny." He said, hoping Kenny would take the hint. Luckily, he did. He took of the mask and smiled, a little disappointed. "Darn it! I hoped I'd scare you with this costume! But you gotta admit, Jordan fell for it."

"I didn't fall for it," Jordan said, convincing herself that Kaz' brother could never be a villain. Kenny looked confused.

"But I heard a girl scream. I know Sk- Connie isn't easily scared and I definitely heard someone scream." He said, looking around. Kaz, Oliver and Skylar looked at each other, saying Alan's name out loud so Kenny knew who exactly had screamed like a girl. He apologized to Jordan for not believing her the first time.

Then, he turned to Kaz, looking like he could kill his brother. "The next time there's an emergency, tell me how urgent it is. Seriously, do you know how long it took me to get this suit on?" he didn't kill his brother, but he did sound very angry.

"Then what do you understand as an emergency?" Kaz wanted to know. Before answering, Kenny glanced sideways at Jordan, having to choose his words carefully.

"An emergency to me is when you meet a guy dressed up as villains. You know about my never-ending competition about who made a better costume? Well, that's what I call an emergency. The better the costume, the bigger the emergency." After being released from Mighty Max prison, Kenny Gordon got a chance to redeem himself. His tasks include infiltrating villain organizations to eventually be 'arrested' with the others after an anonymous tip. Kenny is the spy, helping the League of Heroes by telling them where they'll strike next. And sometimes he had to fight villains, especially when Kaz and his unstable power was involved.

"I can handle myself when a friend of yours shows up." Kaz said.

"No you can't," Kenny said. So far, Kaz and Oliver could only fly, but it isn't unusual that people with powers usually have two separate abilities. Horace, for example, can stop time and bring people back to life, if only five times. Alan has got telekinesis and can shapeshift. There's no telling when their second power shows up and how many damage they'll do before finding out a way to control it. "Now, what's the emergency?"

"These," Kaz said, pointing at the set. There were four crates, eight paintings, one very old mirror and an old grail standing at the side. "Gus ordered them. I really want to know if these are the real things."

"And why would you call your brother to do that?" Jordan asked. She turned her head, seeing Alan was standing next to her again. Luckily, from her point of view, she couldn't see the small wings sticking from his back which had yet disappear.

"Because he's an expert," Kaz said and Kenny nodded.

"Yeah, that's true. I have a vast knowledge of anything that's worth millions." He saw Jordan wasn't very convinced. "I'm a college graduate, and my classes allow me to know how much something's worth. Now, let me take a look at them."

Kenny started with the mirror. Kenny looked at it, deducing the frame design was built in the twentieth century, but the glass itself had been put in there a few years ago. he didn't even step forward to know how much the eight paintings were worth in dollars.

"Those paintings aren't originals," he said, "I mean, even a little kid would know the Milkmaid, the Mona Lisa and those others don't have any roses in it! But then again, the untrained eye wouldn't even notice - except for the Mona Lisa, that one's obvious. These definitely could be hanging in a museum and nobody would notice they're not originals. How did Gus get his hands on these paintings?"

"Guys, I found something!" Alan shouted, holding some official-looking documents in his hand. They all hurried towards him as the doors opened. Kenny turned his head and sighed when he saw who had just walked in.

"Oh no," he said, causing Kaz and his friends to look up. Spark had just walked in, and now was glaring at Kenny while coming closer. She had arrived a little later because Nightstrike was causing mayhem again. She still went to Logan High, using her mother's name to blend in and not get caught. Now, as Alice, she told Kaz she would help him and Oliver set up the play, but she wouldn't want to perform in it. As a hero, her alter ego should stay as far away from the audience as possible as not to get recognized.

"What is _he_ doing here?" She asked when she saw Kenny standing there, in his Incinerator costume no less. Kaz immediately walked closer to them. He knew that look on her face, so he definitely needed to make sure she wouldn't hurt his brother, even if he could perfectly take care of himself.

"He just gave us details about the set Gus ordered for the play," Kaz, said pointing at the paintings. He figured Spark blamed him for stealing them and wanting to set them on fire. Kenny turned to Kaz.

"And 'he' can talk for himself," Kenny said, turning back to Spark. "Kaz called me, I came over, I helped him and I'm staying here."

"Why?" Kaz then asked, "You're not supposed to stay, I just wanted to know about the paintings." Kenny turned back to Kaz with a smile on his face.

"I'm staying just to annoy Spark." He said, realizing too late he made a mistake by calling her with her hero name. Too bad Jordan heard them talk and reacted.

"Spark?" She said, "But her name is Alice." Before Kaz or Spark could say anything, Kenny immediately started lying as if his life depended on it.

"It is!" he said, then turned to his brother and Spark, "I got this," then turned back to Jordan, "Alice and I, we dated in the past. She reminded me so much of the superhero Spark – you know, during the time she was only beginning to do her heroic deeds – and that's why I call her Spark. But we broke up and now I can't stop annoying her, and I'm annoying her by staying here and calling her Spark."

"How is staying here annoying her?" Kaz wanted to know. Sure, he knew why she'd rather not be called Spark in public, but he couldn't get why Kenny staying here would make her irritated.

"Because," Spark continued, growing angrier every second, " _he_ is extremely volatile! I may be unstable at some points, but he's ten times worse!" Kenny sighed, getting annoyed himself. He knew she was referencing his villain career.

"Oh, geez, you know I left that behind me. I'm not gonna go back there." Spark crossed her arms.

"You may be working with the best in the business, but that doesn't mean I have to trust you." Kenny nodded.

"Great! We agree to disagree." He said and they looked away from each other.

"Stop bickering and come see these papers," Skylar said, breaking up the argument between Spark and the Incinerator. Kaz, Kenny, Jordan and Spark walked back to Skylar, Oliver and Alan, who were looking at the documents Alan held in his hands. They indeed looked like official documents, because they were official documents.

"What do they say?" Kenny asked. He wasn't standing close enough to see what was written on the papers. Luckily, Skylar had already read them and was willing to explain them to Kenny and the others.

"Gus indeed had ordered the set, but somehow they got mixed up with this delivery. Everything in here was supposed to go to a museum in Brazil, but somehow this delivery and Gus' set got mixed up and now we're stuck with the paintings."

"So these are supposed to be in Brazil right now," Jordan said, taking those documents to see for herself.

"How did Gus even get these two mixed up?" Spark wondered out loud, looking at the paintings. She still thought it couldn't be a coincidence these paintings are here, in the same room as the Incinerator. Kenny shrugged, as to respond to her question. He took the shipping documents as Jordan laughed.

"What's so funny?" Alan wanted to know. Jordan could stop laughing, but still had a bright smile on her face when he replied to his question.

"These pricy paintings are here with us," she said, "and in Brazil, they are stuck with the set of our play! I'd like to see the look on their faces!" Kaz nodded, smiling, to say he agreed with her. Man, those workers at that Brazilian museum must be really pissed off right now.

Kenny put the document down and started looking for something. He randomly opened crates, only to find them empty. He did open one crate with a hideous odor, but he soon closed that one. Eventually he found a smaller crate, containing exactly what he was looking for.

"Hey, what's that?" Skylar asked. Kenny now held a grail in his hands. It clearly was old, older than any of the original versions of the paintings. It was a beautiful golden grail with gems and a lid on it. There were words carved in the sides. They couldn't be read, as it was written in an old unused alphabet and a dead language.

"That's probably more worth than any of these paintings combined," he looked at it with desire as one could look at their girl- or boyfriend. As if he wanted to keep that grail for himself and would try to take anyone down who would try to take it away from him with force. Luckily, Kenny knew his limits and he gave it to Kaz.

"You should definitely take a look," he told Kaz, "maybe you can show the others, too. I've already seen it long enough from up close." He may have been rehabilitated and work for the League of Heroes, sometimes his villain side showed up, especially when something like this grail came into his sight. It was much safer in Kaz' hands – or anyone's hands, for that matter. Eventually, it stayed in Spark's hands, who put it on a bigger crate.

"So, what do you say, flamethrower?" Spark asked Kenny. "You came to give details, so why don't you do the same for this item."

"I will," Kenny said, looking at it. "This is, as you all probably guessed, an old grail. Grails like these were generally made during the middle ages, though the Romans also made these _calixes_. A model like this one leans more to America. The writing on the grail and the way these gems are arranged highly suggest this one is made by the Incas."

He now was extremely close to the grail, eyes nearly an inch away from it. He could feel how he lifted his hands to go and grab it. Yet, he turned around and put his hands in his pockets, as to not be tempted any longer. "If this grail really was made by the Incas, we should stay as far away from it as possible because yes, this can be extremely dangerous." He paused for a dramatic effect, "And I know for sure the Incas made it, so we should keep our hands off of it, okay? No touchy."

Everyone nodded. They wouldn't want to touch it anyway. It was just an old grail, which only could be interesting for history buffs. Or thieves, or villains who badly needed money for their villainous activities.

"Hey, this grail has a lid," Spark noticed.

"It does?" Kenny asked and he came closer again. "Oh yes, it does. Strange, because there's nothing inside it." Everyone who was already present had held the grail once, and they hadn't heard anything inside of it. Normally, a grail didn't have any lid at all, so what was the difference with other grails?

"Maybe there's a ghost inside." Jordan suggested.

"Please, there's no such thing as ghosts." Oliver said. He didn't believe in ghosts. Superheroes, supervillains, aliens, yes. But not in ghosts. Unless there was a comic book starring a ghost, he wouldn't believe in them.

"Says you," said Spark. Oliver looked at her confused, while she gave him a satisfying grin – as if she knew something he didn't know. At that point, Gus finally decided to show up at the meeting. Skylar walked up to him.

"Gus, where were you?"

"Sorry, I'm a little late. I had to finish my homework before I was allowed to come and…" he stopped when he saw the paintings. "What happened in here? Where are the tigers?"

"You ordered tigers for the set?" Kaz exclaimed. Gus nodded.

"Duh! But apparently they weren't delivered in time…" He clearly didn't care about the paintings, as if he had wanted them to be here in this room, even if he didn't seem too happy with the paintings that arrived. He probably was expecting some works from Andy Warhol or other painters.

"Look, we don't have time for this," Oliver said. "Don't touch anything and come help decide what to do. We only have one week, remember?" He then walked back to his friends, who were ready to discuss what to do with the set and what they would do with their play. Kenny stayed, giving some adult input into what he wanted or didn't want to see.

Gus walked over to them until he got distracted by some golden glance he noticed from the corner of his eye. It was a beautiful old grail. Gus could only wonder why someone would leave it standing on a crate. He picked it up and tried to read the symbols written on it, but he couldn't read the language nor the alphabet. If he could, he would've translated it.

Then, he saw the grail had a lid. He shook the grail slightly, to hear if something was inside it. He didn't hear anything, but still wanted to pull off the lid, out of curiosity. Behind him, he heard how the others noticed Gus was trying to pull the lid off the grail.

They were too late. Not a second later, the lid was separated from the grail and Gus looked inside it.

Then, the trouble started.


	3. Solve the riddle

**Hey there, guys! I guess I should apologize for the cliffhanger of last chapter, but don't worry: it's gonna be resolved now! We meet our main villain, the plot kicks in and some more explanation will be given (because that's needed). But first, let's go to the reviews:**

 _TTLKABC:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Oliver and Kaz would probably talk him into quitting the job because the USA can't handle Gus as president. Kenny probably will try to be careful, but blow it as he spends more time with her. And yes, Jordan just won't see Alan shape-shift. She just happened not to look at him whenever it happens._

 _skoliver456:_ _I'm not very good at translating any languages other than English, but I think_ _I understood. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _TKDP:_ _Thanks for reviewing! They sure will be in danger. And Kenny got his knowledge in the business- plus, it's Kaz' brother, which can explain a lot. They didn't actually date - it just was a lie to cover for Spark after nearly blowing her cover. Now you'll know what happens next!_

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _I like it, too! More might come in the future! To be honest, they just told him not to touch anything - they didn't tell him it could be cursed. Besides, I'm pretty sure Gus would have opened if even if he knew. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _daphrose:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Well, (all of) his older brothers are in jail and there is a chance one of them is a villain, even if that chance is very small. And here's the next chapter!_

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

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The lights flickered, some creepy, spooky music was played and everyone seemed to be pushed down to the ground. Gus had dropped the lid and the grail, screaming loudly, being nowhere in sight. When they could lift their heads, they could see how that old mirror and the Mona Lisa started to float. They all looked at it in awe.

"Alan, are you doing this?" Kaz shouted to sound louder than the music.

"Shut it!" was Alan's response. When Kaz looked at him, he saw Alan was paler than usual, which probably meant Alan was trying to control his fear and not to turn into an animal right now.

"Kaz, Oliver? Got something to say?" Skylar then shouted, sounding a little annoyed. She didn't like the fact they received powers because of the Arcturion and she still could be considered a Normo. Besides from flying, they might have discovered something else along the way – the Arcturion probably gave them a lot more powers than only the power of flight.

"Not us!" Oliver shouted back to her. Skylar turned her head, noticing Oliver lay only two feet away from her. Their eyes met each other and she noticed he truly was afraid. He moved his arm, reaching out for her, afraid to lose her to whatever was happening. She responded by reaching out for him, too. their fingertips were only one inch away, reaching out as if their lives depended on it.

In the meantime, Kenny had tried to find another suspect – anyone but the grail – and figured Jordan and Spark hadn't said anything yet. "Spark," he began, "are you doing this?" He asked it, despite already knowing the answer to the question.

"No, I'm not! Are you?" was her response. Kenny rolled his eyes and sighed.

"I'm a Normo!" he yelled, "what are you thinking? I only have flamethrowers!"

Then, it stopped. No force was putting them down anymore, the music had stopped playing and the lights weren't flickering anymore. They all were able to get up. Jordan kept her mouth shut, unable to process what the heck just had happened. Apparently, Kenny wasn't kidding when he said this grail could be dangerous – she blamed the grail only because it's supposed to be dangerous.

Plus, another weird thing happened. Out of nowhere, eleven wooden boxes had appeared. They were all standing close to the paintings – some together, some apart, and on every one of them stood a symbol, along with the consonants of the word they're depicting. It also looked like each of those boxes were standing on a red light, which shone from underneath the boxes. Kenny, being too curious for his own good, walked closer to the boxes, not knowing if it would cause something to happen. The others just watched as Kenny walked closer to the nearest box. The only reason Spark didn't stop him was that if those boxes were really dangerous, at least Kenny wanted to test it himself.

He was only one inch away from the box, deducing it was rather safe to come close to them. Too bad he also thought this meant he could safely touch those boxes. He kneeled and placed his hand on the box. No second later, an unknown force pushed Kenny away from it and shot him across the room. He flew through the air and landed on two seats of the front row. He groaned in pain, unable to immediately get up.

"Kenny, are you okay?" Skylar asked. Kenny gave her a thumbs up in response, which he took down after no second. He panted and was clearly hurt.

"I'll be fine." He said, "You know, I think I'll just stay here for a while. Don't mind me." He made perfectly clear with his choice of words that he'd rest on those seats in a comfortable position for as long as it took him to recover from his short flight. Now, it was Spark's turn to try something. She walked to the rail and fearlessly picked it up, along with the lid. Nothing happened to her, and all she did with it then was putting the lid back on the grail and placing it back on a crate.

"That's it," Jordan suddenly said, "I'm leaving." She decided to leave as this was too much for her to take in at this point. She could handle a lot, but floating mirrors and cursed grails crossed a line. She grabbed the doorknob and pushed and pulled – the door wouldn't budge. She tried harder, but it still didn't open. The others noticed she was having trouble with opening the door, and so they all went there – except for Kenny, who was content watching them struggle. Even with their powers combined, the door just wouldn't open.

Out of anger and despair, Oliver kicked it once, hurting his foot in the process. He didn't like being locked up, and this too was much more than he could handle. Normally, he'd ask Alan to take it down, but it wasn't Alan who was causing it. "Great!" he muttered. "Now what?"

"Wait!" Alan suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention, "Where's Gus?" Only then they realized Gus wasn't anywhere near them. Given the circumstances, they were all extremely worried about him. All but Jordan, because she doesn't even like him as an acquaintance. They looked everywhere (Kenny shouted he wasn't anywhere near him to help them a bit) but they couldn't find him. Then, a short glimpse of him made Kaz turn around and look at something that made his face turn pale.

"Found him." he said as he couldn't take his eyes off of the painting. Everyone followed his example and soon they all noticed Gus. He waved at them with a smile on his face, wondering why they were looking at him like that. He didn't realize yet he was trapped inside this inanimate object, this painting and figured he just looked funny. His lips moved, but there was no sound to come along with it. He had no idea his friends didn't understand what he was saying.

"How did _that_ happen?" Jordan exclaimed. No, she didn't start to care about Gus, she just wondered how he ended up in there and if someone could join him there. The others seemed just as distressed as she was. Sure, they regularly faced villain, powers, heroes, sidekicks, but this was the very first time someone got trapped inside an inanimate object.

"Guys…" Kenny said, pointing at the mirror which was still floating above their heads, "You might wanna take a look at this…" They followed Kenny's finger and gaze and to their great shock, they could see someone in that mirror. It was just a pale face of which the forehead was covered with a large cowl. They figured it was an old man who spoke an old language they didn't recognize.

"Sir?" Spark started and the man stopped talking, turning his attention to the girl who was brave (and stupid) enough to say something to him. "Hi. I'm sorry, but we cannot understand what you're saying. Would you please translate?" They waited some seconds, which felt like ages before the man started talking in English with a British accent.

"How I despise you Americans," he spoke slowly, "Never feeling any need to ask for permission or to learn any language but your global one."

"We _do_ learn other languages at school." Kaz said – he didn't mention he wasn't very good at them.

"Even if you will never use them," responded the man, who then patiently waited for the answer. Kaz was taken aback by that reaction and didn't say anything else about it. Then, it was Skylar's turn to address the mystery man in the mirror.

"Who are you and what do you want from us?" She boldly asked him.

"Do you truly want to understand?" the way he said this question made perfectly clear the one and only answer was 'yes'.

"Well…" Alan started, but everyone started glaring at him. Eventually, he continued responding, partially afraid this ghost (and others like Skylar) would hurt him if he said no. "I mean, yes! We do!" It was a close call, but the man eventually started talking.

"I will not tolerate any interruption and disrespect towards me while I am speaking. Am I clear?" they all nodded and thus the man continued. "My name is Ayar, and I am a proud Incan man. During my life, I had many friends, a fine wife and children, a healthy family. I only differed from the others because I worship a nameless sun god other than Inti. My best friend caught me praying to my sun god. He told our leader. The next day, they killed my wife and children in front of my eyes before they punished me. Because of my so-called crimes, the shaman put me in my prison, the old grail your friend has opened, to live and be tormented for all of eternity. I waited a thousand years and now I am ready to avenge my family."

Everyone listened in silence as the man called Ayar spoke. It stayed silent for a long time after he had finished talking, impressed by his life's story. Eventually, Oliver began to talk again. They still wanted to get Gus out of that painting.

"Ayar, sir?" he tried to draw Ayar's attention, "You do realize we didn't do anything to you, right? Our grandparents' grandparents weren't even born then." Everyone looked at Ayar and Kenny also tried to get up and come take a closer look, but nobody was paying attention to the ex-villain.

"It matters not," Ayar responded, "I want revenge, so I will get my revenge. someone has to pay the price, no matter who it is." They were a little surprised with the way Ayar told them. He couldn't care less about the lives he'd ruin, as long as he'd get his revenge.

Spark couldn't take this. she was a full-time hero, part-time student, and wouldn't let this Incan sun god worshipper keep an innocent civilian trapped in a painting.

"Well, not Gus, not anyone – nobody deserves to be punished like this. He's completely innocent and clueless." She had to hold back so she wouldn't shout or hit the mirror with her powers and reveal them to Jordan and Gus.

"Even fools must go," was Ayar's hard answer to Spark's attempt to have him free Gus. She would have continued talking if Kenny hadn't interrupted her.

"What's the point of those boxes?" Kenny asked. His younger brother was helping him get up and get back to the stage and close to the mirror to protect his brother's friends if necessary. Everyone stared at him, including Ayar. "I'm sorry if I interrupted you, but I just don't get it…"

Luckily, Ayar seemed to understand the situation. Nobody knows what would've happened if he punished Kenny for his 'brutality'. "I will make you understand," was his response, "During my years of torment, I had a lot of time to think and thus I could plan my revenge carefully. If one man would show up, they would be trapped in the nearest inanimate object. If a group found my grail, however, I would make a game out of it. These boxes… even I do not know where they came from, but they will be most welcome. One of those boxes contains the means necessary to save your friend. You will be allowed to open one single box at a time, but only if you successfully complete whichever task I'll give you. If you fail to complete this task, anyone trapped in those paintings will be wiped from existence. If you open the wrong box, the person who opened it will be joining your friend in a painting.

At first, they would be trapped in inanimate objects. Yet, the circumstances allowed my grail to be close to these paintings. Those trapped would still be able to see how you fail to rescue them."

"We will rescue them." Skylar said, determined to rescue Gus. She got unanimous support from everyone except Jordan and Alan. Jordan even complained loudly.

"Can't we just leave him there?" she asked, "Because this is much more enjoyable than him being near me." The others glared at her, and Kaz even told her they couldn't do that. Eventually, she could be convinced by the others they had to rescue him because his life mattered. In the meantime, Ayar waited patiently for their answer. He hadn't told them that if they didn't want to try anymore, they'd just be stuck for all eternity, watching everyone pass.

"Ayar, we have made a decision," Skylar asked the man in the mirror without any more waiting, "We want to rescue him. What is the first task?"

"I wanted to make the first task a simple one," Ayar said. "You will have to solve a riddle. The right answer is enough." Then, Ayar disappeared from the mirror. It didn't look like he'd come back any time soon.

"So what riddle?" Kaz asked, "I don't see any riddle laying around here. Anyone got a riddle to solve?" He figured they had to solve any riddle any of this group has to come up with. But Kenny pointed at the mirror again.

"Look there!" They looked back at the mirror. Up high was a picture of a cloud and rain, with –in written behind it.

"What does that mean?" Alan asked. Kenny looked at him in an annoyed way.

"It means we have to solve it, genius." he responded looking at it. "See? That's rain. And rain minus the 'in' at the end is…" then, instead of answering, Kenny started to laugh out loud. There was no apparent reason for his laughter, which surprised most of them. They even looked at him as he laughed.

"What is it?" Oliver asked when Kenny eventually stopped laughing.

"Ra is what you get after the first part. It's also the name of the Egyptian sun god! What are the odds?" He paused, "Maybe that's the answer we need!" He seemed quite happy and proud to have solved the riddle in such a short period of time. It wasn't a difficult riddle,

"But there's a second part, too!" Spark said, pointing at the screen. "It's the head of a wolf." And that was all depicted under the rain: just the head and nothing else that could suggest what needed to happen next.

"So, just wolf?" Alan suggested, not really sure if it would be right. "Or do we need to say wolf's head? I don't like it!" they ignored Alan's cry for attention as he walked away to sit down and just wait for everyone to finish

"Shouldn't we add 'were'?" Jordan then said, "As in, werewolf?"

"But what do we do with the 'ra', then?" Kenny said. "it's part of one big riddle. I mean, we do need just one answer right? If we put them together without changing anything, it says 'rawolf'. What the heck is a rawolf?"

"Look again, flamethrower," Spark said, pointing at the mirror. "I think Ayar shows us the next part as we figure out what it means. My guess is that he didn't want to make our first task too easy." Kenny looked at the mirror again. Two arrows which told them they had to turn something around, as well as _a = e_ being written next to it. With these two in the mirror, there was no room left for any other symbols, so they should be able to figure it out.

They were all thinking as hard as they could to figure out this riddle. Nobody said a word as they concentrated. Well, everyone except for Alan, that is. This riddle was just very ridiculous. He'd wait until everyone knew the riddle so he could say "I was waiting for you to figure it out".

"Flower!" Oliver eventually said, looking around. Skylar nodded and repeated the word, telling him she had come up with that too. one by one, they saw logic in Oliver's answer and were now waiting for Alan to answer the question. They needed to be 100% sure their answer was the right one, which meant waiting for Alan to give his thoughts to this potential answer.

"I don't get it!" he eventually yelled, annoyed by this stupid game, "when you turn the word around, you've got "flowar"! What's a flowar?"

"He's not the brightest, is he?" Jordan asked her friends, and Skylar and Oliver nodded. She had no idea this was just a small part of Alan doing or saying stupid things, even if it was because of a lack of knowledge – Horace should've homeschooled him better.

"I bet you didn't see the last part," Kaz said, and Alan took a closer look at the mirror. Indeed, he hadn't seen the _a = e_ at the bottom. Then, he too figured out it had to be flower, and not flowar. He agreed with them and they all looked at each other. Even when it was clear there was only one correct answer, they didn't want to give the wrong answer.

Skylar looked at Gus. He looked like he just needed a bit of pop-corn to enjoy the show. Could he hear them? He probably could see them clearly, but there was no telling if they could hear what was going on as well. she hoped to rescue him, or else she wouldn't be able to stop blaming herself for whatever happened to him.

"Ayar?" she said loudly, so the man could hear her. "The answer is: flower." They waited. There came no response until five seconds had passed. The lights under the boxes changed from red to green, and they could hear a soft ding.

"This means we're good, right?" Kenny wondered.

"Gus is still there," Skylar confirmed, "we're good." Everyone released the breath they had been holding. Gus was still there, for now. so far the good news. They remembered what they had to do next.

"Okay, let's open the box!" Kaz said.

"We can't just open one," Oliver immediately said. "We need to choose carefully which one we'll have to open. There are more boxes than we can open. We shouldn't take any risks." If there was a possibility of opening them at the same time, there would still be three or more boxes left for them to try out. They shouldn't do this and risk getting trapped themselves.

"Okay then," Kaz eventually said. "Which one do you want to open?"


	4. Worship the god

**I'm back with the third chapter of my Halloween story! Will they choose the right box? Who will open it and will they free Gus? All those questions will be answered in due time. Man, I love writing this story, but school sucks and gives me to much homework so I barely have time to complete this before Halloween. Anyway, I managed to write this chapter, so let's go to the reviews so you can read the next chapter:**

 _barbarastyles:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Here's the next chapter._

 _TKDP:_ _Jordan dislikes Gus enough to let him stay in there. There'll be more (little) Skoliver moments, plus one moment that you definitely will dislike. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Off course he won't make it easy, but sometimes sending them right into traps could be just as effective. Well, ou'll get your answer this chapter._

 _TTLKABC:_ _Me too! That'd be really bad... Blame Alan for being homeschooled by Horace. That's what I did when I wrote that part. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _daphrose:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, it was an easy riddle. The tasks will get more challenging, but that depends on what they'll have to do and how far they'll go._

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

* * *

Rose, sunflower, moon, sun, twenty-eight, finger, mouth, eye, gem, hand, heart. Those were the items depicted on the boxes. There were too many for them, so they had to choose. After all, they were only allowed to open one box at a time, and only after successfully completing the task. There was no telling what would happen.

"A flower," Oliver eventually answered Kaz' question, "the answer of the riddle was a flower. Maybe we're looking for a flower." Everyone agreed with him – it just seemed logical. They looked around.

"We have one with a rose here!" Alan said, pointing at said box and he already walked to it. The sooner this ended, the better it would be for all of them. However, he hadn't counted on being stopped by Spark.

"Alan, wait!" she said with enough authority to make him stop walking, "We have a box with a sunflower, too!" At the other side of the stage stood the box with the sunflower. Between the two boxes stood every other box.

"Those are our only two options," Skylar then said, looking from one box to another, "None of the other boxes depict a flower. So it's either the sunflower or the rose."

"Or any of the other symbols," Oliver reacted, "we don't know – every single one of them can be the right box. But our best guess lies with the flowers." He looked at the boxes, hoping he was right. Off course, he couldn't be entirely sure.

"Wait," Jordan then said, interrupting their thought process. "Who is going to open the box?" They all looked around. Nobody wanted to say they'd rather just wait and see what was going to happen if this was not the right box. Eventually, Kenny stepped forward before Spark could do so.

"If nobody wants to do ti, I'll take it," he said, rubbing his hands, ready to make the final decision if necessary. That's when Spark walked up to him and came so dangerously close she made him back away from her as she spoke. "I will not allow you to play hero when you don't even know what it means, Gordon! I do not want that boy to rely on a flamethrower to be saved."

Kenny stared at her for quite some time before he eventually managed to say something. "Ladies first." If Spark insisted on going first, he'd let her. If she'd make the wrong decision, he'd open a box after the second task and free them both. That'd show her he could be a hero. That'd show her he was more than the guy who chose to live like a villain, the second Incinerator after the first one passed away, the seven years before he redeemed himself.

"I'm going to open the box with the sunflower," she said, looking very confident, "The sunflower definitely looks more appealing to a guy who worships a sun god." Everyone agreed with her and hoped she made the right decision. She stood in the middle of the stage and walked to the right, to the box with the sunflower. This box stood on the ground and close to a painting, just like all those boxes, which would make it very easy to get trapped, too.

Spark had to bow down in order to open this box. When she almost could feel the wood, she heard how Alan loudly yelled. "Wait!" he shouted. "What?" was her response.

"Are you sure?" he asked her. Spark nodded, looking very confident. She had to be. that moment, she promised herself she wouldn't scream like Gus if this was the wrong box. She sat down on her knees and placed her hand on the box.

"WAIT!" Spark looked up, as she was interrupted again. and again, it had been Alan who had shouted this word. "What?" was her response.

"Alan, what is it?" Skylar asked him. They could all see this was too much for him to take in, but they had no idea why he wanted to stop Spark from trying to get Gus out of there. When Alan had managed to calm down, Spark was free to open the box with the sunflower on it. This time, she wouldn't be interrupted by Horace's nephew.

She placed her hands on the box and opened it. She looked in it, stared for a couple of seconds and turned it on its side so the others could see it. "It's empty," she said as she showed them the inside of the box. She placed it back, closed and got up as quickly as possible. When she wanted to walk away from it, however, she fell flat on her stomach.

"Spark!" Kenny, who stood closest to her, ran to her and grabbed her hand. Skylar helped him by grabbing the other. "We're not going to let this happen," Kenny said. They could only guess something made sure she wouldn't be able to move her legs and flee from her fate. The others watched as Skylar and Kenny tried their hardest to keep Spark from disappearing.

An electric shock shot through their bodies. When it was over, Kenny and Skylar had to let go of the superhero who then disappeared out of sight. Oliver and Kaz rushed to Skylar and Kenny, helping them get back up.

"Are you okay?" Oliver asked her and she nodded.

"I'm fine, thanks," she said. That moment, she promised herself she'd at least have to rescue Oliver if it ever happened to him. He meant too much to her to just let him be placed inside a painting. That moment, she realized she might feel more than just friendship, just as the time Bree Davenport flirted with him and he flirted back.

"No!" That was Kaz – they turned their heads and saw Kaz (and Kenny, too) was staring at Spark and the painting she was trapped in. she seemed annoyed, angered and a little desperate. Her mouth formed words, but she made sure they'd be able to read her lips: Hang on. You can do it. Good luck. The lights under the boxes standing near her painting were red again, so they didn't dare touch them to try and 'cheat'.

As for Jordan, she had no idea what to think anymore. Up until this point, she tried to make herself believe this was just a prank from the seniors who would try to sabotage this play, who asked Gus to work with them because nobody would suspect him to be involved. But now, she had seen how Alice was dragged into the darkness an how she had appeared inside a painting. This completely wiped away her stupid senior-prank-theory. That, and she was having a hard time to adjust to these weird happenings that didn't seem to affect her acquaintances as much as it affected her.

"Too bad," Ayar spoke, having appeared in the floating mirror again, "Another friend has been taken and trapped in a painting." He let those words sink in before continuing, "Is your friendship failing them or will you continue with the next task?"

"Give us the next task now." Kenny demanded and Ayar nodded, not the least bit intimidated by the bossy tone Kenny had just used.

"Very well," the man in the mirror said, "The second task might be a little more complicated. My prison has been in multiple museums. There, I have heard a lot about being free to choose who you follow. It will not a be a problem if you are asked to worship the sun god I follow. To make it easier, you will be given a statue of him which you must decorate with seven pieces of jewelry, all separated from each other, and within the span of a song which undoubtedly will irritate you, as it irritated me." Ayar disappeared again.

They looked at each other. They knew what they had to do, even if the details were a bit vague sometimes. "He calls that easier?" Jordan said, "I bet we have to make that statue he was talking 'bout ourselves."

As soon as Jordan had spoken these words, one of the bigger crates opened. There was a four feet tall statue of this sun god inside this crate, waiting for the jewelry to be placed on it. He wasn't the best-looking god they've seen – at least the Greeks depicted their gods like beautiful young men and women.

"So we have a statue," Oliver said, "Now, we have to wait for the song and the jewelry." They waited for another minute before one beam of light shone on the right of the seventh row and the music started to play.

As Kenny ran to where the light has shone, wondering what the light had to do with the situation, he looked, noticing something was laying on the seat. He guessed it was a red piece of jewelry, moon-shaped. He brought it back to the others and put I on the statue.

"This is what we're… what the heck?" he said these last three words when he heard which song Ayar had chosen. He was very irritated by the singer and wondered how Ayar could have heard this particular song. "How'd he ever find this song?"

"I don't know, but we're stuck listening to it," Jordan said, having covered her ears. This song reminded her too much of Gus, especially since he once sang it for no apparent reason. The song is indeed that irritating, as it is Spongebob Squarepants' "Best Day Ever", which definitely was too positive for this situation.

"Anyway, we're gonna have to wait until these lights have showed us where we'll need to go." Kenny said.

"Can't we just look there ourselves? I bet they're all just laying around." Kaz said as the refrain of the song could be heard. Kenny shook his head.

"It can never be that easy." He said as the light reappeared, this time shining on one of the last rows. Skylar shouted she'd go get it, and she did get one. It would continue like this until they had six pieces of jewelry and the refrain would commence for the last time. In their eyes, six should definitely be enough. Besides, there could be no time left for a possible seventh piece.

And yet, for the seventh time, the light picked a place in the exact center of the big room, causing Kenny to run faster than he usually ran. He already heard how the song faded out when he had reached the piece. He quickly ran back and realizing he wouldn't get there in time, he threw it. It flew through the air and Skylar caught it, placing it on the statue with the other six pieces as the last seconds of the song played.

If Skylar hadn't pulled her hands back in time, the crate closed itself again and Skylar's hands would've been stuck there, injuring her. Just a few seconds, though it felt like ages, they held their breath and nothing happened. Then, the light under the boxes lit up green, announcing they had completed the second task. They released their breath they've been holding, relieved they succeeded in time.

As Kenny joined them – he had walked back to the others, not bothering to run that distance –, it was time to ask that question again: who will open which box?

* * *

 **Hi guys! Yeah, AN down here, too! I was just wondering if you can figure out which box is the right one before our characters do! We have some options left and I wonder how well you can guess which one is the right one. Be warned: after every task, there are multiple options (like this chapter and the previous one). Good luck!**

 **Options left: moon, sun, eye, mouth, finger, rose,** _sunflower,_ **twenty-eight, gem, hand, heart**


	5. Count the roses

**Here's the next chapter, and we're halfway there! I won't be able to finish it before Halloween, but it doesn't matter, right? It's just very fun to read and write, especially this chapter. It's never what it seems. Let's see how many of you were right, and if you know which one it is when we've arrived a tht end of the chapter. And now, let's go to the reviews:**

 _TTLKABC:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Well, the next victim is the one who opens the next wrong box. He planned to have them too irritated to miss the lights. Plus, he's a worshipper, not a god. Solid guess. Let's see if the gem is the right one._

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _Well, she's a hero - she'd rather sacrifice herself to save the people. And yes, those tasks can get a little ridiculous sometimes. But there's one you're gonna love! Acutally, I'd love to hear what you're thinking, but if you want to keep it for yourself, well... I can't force you to say it._ _Thanks for reviewing!_

 _TKDP:_ _Thanks for reviewing! I know, right? You're the second to say they're opening the gem box - we'll see in this chapter if that's true. And yeah; He's probably not happy people like Spongebob, even if he doesn't know what it is._

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

* * *

"So, what could it be now?" Kaz asked, looking around. it could still be anything – except for the sunflower, as it had put Spark into a painting and nobody would be stupid enough to open it again. eventually, Jordan started to talk.

"Moon," she suggested, "those did have the shape of the moon." Kaz nodded. He didn't really pay attention to the shape of the jewelry, but Jordan apparently had paid attention. So, why not follow her? There'd be multiple options anyway.

"But the dude still worships the sun god," Skylar said in response, "The sunflower's already ruled out, so the sun's still an option." As for Oliver, he agreed with Skylar. Ayar did worship a sun god, but he had his doubts. The sun was an option, so was the moon, and the gem definitely could be counted as well now.

"Then the gem as well," he said. "We had to place them on the statue. We shouldn't completely rule it out." they agreed with him.

"And the rose," Alan then said, making everyone stare at him. "What? Roses are red, right? They were red too." Jordan, among others, sighed, irritated by Alan's choice.

"In that case, Alan, you might want to add the mouth." Kaz reacted.

"Why?" Alan wondered, genuinely being interesting.

"Because there are mostly stupid things coming out of it."

"Stop it, guys." Kenny broke up their fight before it even became a fight. "Kaz, you could've said that in a more friendly way. But to be fair, it _is_ a stupid idea, Alan. I don't think that'll be a decisive factor. We should definitely stay with the sun, moon and gem." And then, they didn't say anything for at least three minutes. They all thought about which ones could be of more value to Ayar, and which one seemed to be, most logically, the answer. Eventually, Kenny spoke up, being fed up with this silence and everyone working separately.

"Shouldn't we be working together?" he suggested, "or are we always going to let the one decide who's going to open the box?" Everyone had something else to think of, which was Kenny's question. They were here, with multiple people, and yet they all were thinking separately while they could also be working together.

"That's a great suggestion," Kaz then agreed with his older brother, "but then we'll have to know who is going to open a box this time." After seeing what happened to Spark, they were now even more reluctant to try and open a box. Knowing nobody would do it willingly, Kenny then nodded and continued talking.

"Well," he said, "since Spark can't stop me now, I guess that I'll open the box this time."

"What a hero," Jordan rolled her eyes and shook her head. Kaz clearly didn't like what Jordan as he turned to her. He was about to comment on what she had said, but Oliver wouldn't let him. he walked up to them and yelled.

"Shut it!" Jordan and Kaz turned their heads, knowing Oliver meant them. "If we want to do this, we need to do this together – without fighting. Please don't fight. We can only succeed if we're in this together." Jordan and Kaz looked at each other and the words they didn't say out loud were most genuine. Oliver wasn't a mind reader, but he did know their friendship wasn't exactly great. So, Oliver turned to Kenny again.

"Have you made your decision?" He asked and Kenny nodded.

"I have – if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and open the box with the sun. The gem, it only appeared once in these two tasks. And because Ayar worships a sun god, it'd be more logical if he picked the sun." he walked over to the box with the sun, standing next to the box with the moon. There was practically nothing he could hold onto, which scared him. there were no cracks in his mask, so they only saw a confident young man.

He looked at the teenagers in front of him. "Protect the others, please. I know what you can do and what you once could do. You are a good, a smart person. Use your logic and save your friends. You know I'm talking about you," he looked at Skylar in particular, "Also, I it's empty, don't try to save me. If you hold on to me, I might unintentionally drag you with me in there; we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" he cracked a smile and then sat on his knees. He closed his eyes and he opened the box, reaching in it.

Again, it was completely empty. He opened his eyes to confirm it and the look he shot at his younger brother was more than enough evidence for the others that Kenny has sealed his fate. Unlike Spark, he didn't resist when something pulled him out of sight, away from the five teenagers, into one of those paintings.

* * *

This may have been one of the worst things that happened to her, not counting her numerous adventures as a superhero. Spark didn't like her current position at all. She could only move her head and arms, being trapped standing and watching as her friends tried to rescue them. She wasn't really paying attention to them – she could see what happened, but not hear what was going on.

That's when she heard someone hum something. At first, she thought she was just imagining it because yes, it was that quiet there, but eventually she figured it couldn't be her imagination. Needing to know who was humming, she had to call out.

"Hello?" She said. The humming stopped – maybe it was her imagination after all. She was about to turn her head when she heard his voice.

"Who's there?" It was Gus! Man, she was extremely glad she figured out how to communicate with the others inside the painting. That way, she wouldn't completely feel lonely in her own prison.

"Gus?" she continued, "It's me, Alice!" she waited for a few seconds before smiling and hearing the response she got from Gus.

"You can hear me?" He asked her and then sighed. "Great! So much for me-time."

"If we can't get out of here, you'll have plenty of me-time." Spark said, "Hey, Gus, you should know we're risking quite a lot to get you out of there! We already have tried to free you, but it didn't really work. You better hope we won't vanish because of your stupidity."

"We?" Gus wondered, not really paying attention to Spark's last words – that, or he didn't want to think about what would happen if his friends failed to rescue them. "So who else has tried to open a box?" Spark frowned, confused

"How do you—" Gus interrupted her, even if she had no intention to finish this sentence because she was too surprised Gus knew what was going on.

"I can hear Ayar talk," he said, "You know, he was very rude – he called me a fool. At least, I think he called me a fool. Now, who else has tried?"

"That would be me," Spark heard Kenny's voice say. He sounded quite annoyed. She looked through the painting, as if she was looking through a window, and she saw they were all looking up, probably looking at Ayar's mirror. They could hear Ayar give the new instructions. Spark sighed – was it really that easy?

"Hey, guys," Kenny then said, "We're walking right into a trap. Seriously, every task so far has had multiple options. And they've got nothing to do with each other!"

"It doesn't make sense," Spark continued, "How are we ever supposed to find the right box?"

"We're not," Gus then answered. "He does want revenge on humanity. Doesn't that mean we're not even supposed to find the right box? Sure we can always try and some tasks may have something in common, but I don't think you were ever supposed to find the right answer." Spark could only stay silent after Gus, of all people, figured this out before a hero and an ex-villain who could always return to his roots. It was a scary thought, but there was a big chance this was the truth.

"Hey, Gus, may I add something?" Kenny asked, and he continued when Gus told him to go ahead. "If you hadn't opened that grail, we wouldn't have been trapped in paintings and none of this would've happened! why did you—"

"Kenny!" This silenced Kenny, probably because this was the first time Spark has called him with his first name, and not 'Gordon' or 'flamethrower'. There must be a good reason for her to call him with his first name, even if she only used it to draw his attention. "You were looking at it like you wanted to do the same."

"Please, you know I wouldn't open it." Kenny said.

"I wasn't talking about opening it," Spark said and she knew that he knew what she was talking about. She heard Kenny sigh.

"Seriously, you're bringing that up now?"

"Yes, I am bringing it up now." And they continued to bicker, leaving Gus confused as to what they were talking about. He guessed it was about a fight they've had before today, a small problem between the two of them which they still couldn't have resolved. So Gus just focused on what was happening with Jordan and the others, wondering why Alan was looking directly at the painting he was trapped in before remembering what they had to do.

* * *

While they had been talking, Kaz started to check every other painting to see in which one his older brother was. Eventually, he found the painting Kenny was trapped in, and he saw how his older brother shot him an annoyed look, as if he wanted to say to just move on with the next task.

"Let's continue," Skylar said, and then asked Ayar what they had to do next. Ayar appeared in his mirror again, only showing up to tell them what they had to do for the third task. "The third task is very simple. The answer I seek is the number of roses that are depicted." And that was that – Ayar disappeared again.

"We have to count the roses?" Alan said, looking at the others, "It can't be that easy, right?" Kaz and Jordan looked at each other, but quickly turned away, looking for attention from Oliver and Skylar, who were looking at each other.

"I guess it is that simple," Jordan eventually said. The five teenagers then jumped into action. They agreed to all take one painting and to advance to the next as they had counted. Oliver started with counting the roses in the painting on the left side of the stage.

"Okay, this one's got…" Oliver counted the roses, "four roses." Skylar, Jordan and Kaz counted the roses in six other paintings, which brought the total number from four to sixteen. Now, they were waiting for Alan, who was lingering at the final painting and concentrating on how many there could be right now.

"What's taking you so long?" Jordan asked. Alan turned his head and made a face which clearly said 'I don't like this!'. They all walked over to his painting and could clearly see how his legs were shaking.

"I can't focus!" He said and they all sighed and groaned.

"He can't even count!" Kaz said, knowing very well Alan couldn't count past eighty. He stepped up to Alan and quickly counted the roses in the painting.

"This one's got eleven," he said, but Skylar shook her head.

"No, twelve." Kaz turned his head, to see if he had missed any roses on the painting. He recounted them and eventually turned back to Skylar with an annoyed look.

"No, there are eleven roses." Kaz said. Skylar shook her head again and pointed at the frame of this particular painting.

"No, there's a twelfth rose on the frame." She was right – there was an extra rose on the frame, the one she counted with the others. Ayar didn't specify if the roses had to be on the painting or if they could also be located on the frame, so they could only guess if they had to count the extra rose or not.

"That makes twenty-eight." Oliver counted.

"Or twenty-seven," Kaz objected, as he had no idea if they had to count that extra rose. Nobody knew if they had to count that extra rose. Then, they heard Jordan talking to them.

"It has to be twenty-eight." Kaz turned to Jordan, still a little mad because she made that comment about Kenny, who was really trying to leave his past behind him.

"And why does it have to be twenty-eight?" Kaz asked her, not knowing why she was smiling right now. This wasn't funny! They could die trying to save their friends.

"Because there's a box with the number twenty-eight on it." Jordan then said, pointing at the box. There indeed was one with that particular number written on it. Kaz had to admit the right answer is twenty-eight, and Oliver and Skylar agreed with her. Only Alan was confused now.

"How is that the number twenty-eight?" He said, pointing at the box. "It just says XXVIII!" Those letters were indeed written on the box. You could blame Horace for not teaching Alan what that means yet, as did Oliver, Kaz and Skylar. Horace was at least three thousand years old – he should have at least lived as a citizen of the Roman Empire if he was born in Europe.

"That's twenty-eight written in Roman numbers." Oliver told Alan, and then he explained Roman numbers to the oblivious teenager. As he explained the X meant ten, V stood for five and the I was a one, the lights under the boxes lit up green. It was time to pick a box again.

This time, it might be a little easier than expected. That, or this could indeed be a trap.

* * *

 **Options left: moon,** _sun,_ **eye, mouth, finger, rose,** _sunflower,_ **twenty-eight, gem, hand, heart**


	6. Cook something

**Hey guys! Here's the sixth chapter of the grail! This means only three more chapters and this story's done... We're coming closer to the climax! But first, this chapter comes. I have no idea why it was so hard to write this chapter, but here it is! I guess it's because I'm more motivated to write the next chapter - the one I've been looking forward to write since I started planning this story. But first, let's read this chapter and I'll respond to the reviews:**

 _TTLKABC:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Alan isn't the brightest. He can't count past 79, so he definitely doesn't know the Roman numerals. It's not supposed to be 'easy', not at all! They could get into trouble later. Well, you don't have to wait for much longer - the picking happens at the beginning of the chapter._

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _About Alan: exactly my thoughts! And I think I dropped enough clues so you (and others) should be able to figure out which box is the right one. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _TKDP:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Well, I can't - that's the point. There are not enough people to open them all. You'll have to see what happens to them. There are still three chapters to go (excluding the one you're reading now) and a lot can still happen..._

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

* * *

"I'll do it!" Jordan said as soon as she saw the green lights underneath the boxes. She sounded very optimistic, a little too enthusiastic for the current situation. The others turned to her when she spoke. "This time, it can't be anything else!" Unlike other times, she didn't wait for her friends' opinion about the matter. She just walked toward box XXVIII and opened it before any of them could make any objections.

"Jordan, wait!" Skylar yelled, but it was too late. She had opened the box. And, as the four friends suspected, it was empty. Skylar ran towards her friend, hoping to reach her in time and to pull her away from those paintings. She wasn't fast enough. When had reached the spot where Jordan stood, Ayar had already managed to lock her up inside a painting. She looked disappointed and confused. They thought she was continuously repeating the same phrase. _How could this have gone wrong?_ They had no idea, but they did know a fourth task was coming up.

"Ayar!" Kaz then shouted, looking up, "you said you wanted the number of roses!" Ayar appeared in the mirror, a grin on his face.

"Humanity has been given a great gift: the ability to lie." Ayar responded. Skylar shook her head in disapproval and the others didn't like to be told lies as well, especially when the lives of their friends were at stake.

They started to grow scared. The less people there were to free the others, the more chance there was they themselves would be trapped in there, too. Alan definitely feared this fate the most. It scared him to be in there, not able to do anything anymore. This caused him to react rather quickly.

"Can't we just quit while we can?" He shouldn't have said that out loud. Oliver, Skylar and Kaz had managed to hear him. They looked at him as if he had just mercilessly killed someone. Especially Skylar was angered by this particular comment.

"What?" she exclaimed, "No, we can't give up on them now! They're counting on us. We can't let them down. Not now." The others, especially Alan, remained silent after she spoke. She was right, and she definitely had intimidated Alan enough to make him shut up. She received silent support from both Kaz and Oliver and then she turned back to the mirror with the Incan man.

"We want the next task." Ayar nodded.

"Very well. Add ingredients to a potion. If completed, you will only need a few drops to open a box. Good luck." After he spoke, they were feeling very uncomfortable. This was the first time Ayar wished them good luck – they felt like this couldn't end well.

A crate on the left swung open, revealing a cauldron. They walked closer – as close as they could without having to cover their noses, that is. There came a strange odor out of it and they didn't want to know what they were smelling.

"He wants us to cook something?" Kaz said, looking at the dirty cauldron, looking inside while pinching his nose closed. He then huffed. "If I wanted to cook, I would've taken those classes…"

"What is this?" Oliver wondered as he looked at the substance that was already in the cauldron. It wasn't fluid, but it wasn't a gas either. Oliver was reminded of Dumbledore's Pensieve, but with a black substance instead of clear blue. They couldn't see the bottom.

"Who cares?" Kaz responded, "All we need to do is to throw in the ingredients. What are they anyway? Don't we have a recipe?" they started looking for the recipe. It didn't take long before Alan found it, signaling the others. They should have known the look on Alan's face meant something. They soon found out what was written on the paper.

"It's blank." Alan said, stating what everyone had already noticed. There as only one word written on the top of the paper: recipe. That's all.

"Well, that's just great." Kaz then commented, "A recipe without ingredients! Oh, let's throw in some stuff!" Alan seemed to agree with that plan – no recipe meant no ingredients and technically that meant you could just put in the cauldron whatever you wanted. But Skylar and Oliver seemed to disagree.

"Don't do that!" Skylar reacted, "There is an ingredient list we need to follow. You can't just throw random things in it." She could see how Kaz really thought it would be the best thing to do.

"But that usually works and…" He tried again, but this time, he was stopped by Oliver, who had taken the recipe in his hands. There has to be something written on here…

"No, Kaz!" he interrupted his best friend. "I think this does contain the ingredients. It could be written in lemons, though…"

"Do we need to add lemons?" Alan then asked. Oliver and Kaz weren't so surprised anymore that Alan (and Skylar, too) knew less about the Normo world than Normo teenagers. They couldn't have known what Oliver meant.

"No," Oliver said, slowly losing his patience, "I meant that it could've been written in lemon juice. But we'll need a candle to see what's on the paper." And off course nobody carried a candle and some matches in their pockets.

"I think I saw some backstage." Kaz then said. He had already gone backstage while looking for the bathroom and he might or might not have seen candles laying around. "I'll go get them!" And Kaz walked to the backstage. For some reason, Alan followed him – probably to search for the candles, too, so they'd get out of this building as soon as possible. And while Kaz and Alan searched for the candles, Oliver and Skylar stayed on the stage.

When Skylar turned her head to Oliver, she could see him stare at the painting in which Jordan was trapped. She decided to come closer to him. "Oliver, are you okay?"

Oliver turned around, now facing Skylar. He shrugged, "I'd be lying if I told you I was." He walked closer to her, looking more desperate than he did thirty seconds ago. Nobody picked it up, so he must be really good at hiding the despair. "This is so difficult, Skylar! This is wrong. We could've – it can never be that easy. I could've stopped her."

Skylar stepped a little closer. "Don't blame yourself. We'll rescue her and the others. We'll find the right box." Her attempt to give him hope didn't exactly work, as he shook his head even before she was done talking.

"It's impossible," he reacted, "Think about what Ayar just said. He could've been lying to us and we wouldn't even have noticed it until we were all trapped. What if he's been giving us false clues to lead us to the wrong boxes instead of the right one – if there even is a 'right one'. I don't –"

"Oliver, calm down", she interrupted him. "We're still here. We can fix this. We just have to believe we can and we have to pay attention. There's gotta be one box that's the right one. It could be a recurring theme or something, but it's impossible none of them contain a solution." They gazed at each other and only because he looked at her, he found the courage and the hope to continue to do the tasks and

A spark ignited. In the face of danger, even if it was an invisible dead man whom they could only see in an old mirror, they found each other. They were still there for each other. Skylar realized she wasn't only playing to save the others, but to make sure Oliver wouldn't end up like them – and Oliver was having the exact same thoughts. His feelings for her grew as she finally figured out what she wanted her relationship with Oliver to be. they were ready to see the three-word sentence that would possibly change their lives.

"I've got a burning candle! Where is the recipe?" Kaz yelled to announce his discovery. Oliver and Skylar were just going to have to wait to tell each other how they felt. Kaz and Alan walked back onto the stage, not knowing what just had happened. The candle was indeed burning and while Alan had practically done nothing, Kaz had been glad with the company. What if the powers of the dude in the mirror reached to the backstage? Then it could've grabbed Alan instead of him. But nothing happened, so they just went back when they found a candle and got it burning with the matches, which Kaz had forgotten to take out of his pockets.

Oliver and Kaz tried not to burn the paper – they didn't want to imagine what would happen without it – and slowly, the text written in lemon juice became visible. To Alan and Skylar it looked like magic, while Oliver and Kaz had used it frequently to communicate during the short period when Oliver's mother forbade them from seeing each other. They were just surprised there were only three lines written.

 _From a young girl, a nail._

 _From the oldest boy, an eyelash._

 _From an animal, a claw._

Everyone tried to memorize the three ingredients, even if it wasn't too hard to remember. They put the candle away so it wouldn't be able to burn the building and they placed the paper with the recipe on top of the crate with the cauldron.

"So, the nail of a young girl," Alan started, and then he looked at Skylar. Soon, Kaz and Oliver followed his example and Skylar sighed. I don't have a choice here, do I?

"I'll do it," she said, "But it's going to be a toenail. I'm cutting only a part off. And how will I do it if we've got nothing?" Good question. What if just a part of the nail isn't enough? She could try to pull it out, but they had no idea if it would grow back while she still didn't have her powers back. And how would they retrieve the nail? She could always try biting it off, but it wouldn't probably taste well and she wouldn't reach it with her mouth. Plus, it'd be very gross.

"I've got an idea!" Kaz said and he walked towards Jordan's backpack. He looked at Jordan as he was about to open it and he noticed she was, to say the least, mad at him for even wanting to do that. looking away, he opened the backpack and searched until he found a pair of nail clippers. He walked back to his three friends. "If someone does get trapped after this, please explain to Jordan we needed a nail and that we were only borrowing these."

He then handed the nail clippers to Skylar, who had already taken off one of the shoes and socks. she gave her toenail to Alan, who immediately threw the nail into the cauldron so they wouldn't forget to put it in there. The substance temporarily turned green, so everyone assumed it was good enough for Ayar. Kaz put the nail clippers back where he found them as Oliver recited the next line.

"Which one of you is older?" Alan asked. He was one year younger – he had no idea in what year Kaz and Oliver were born and he liked to believe they were one year older than him in this situation. Oliver and Kaz looked at each other. Kaz got a satisfied look on his face, crossed his arms and looked at his best friend.

"Oliver is three days older than me." He said, and that was enough for Oliver to sit down and ask his friends to keep him in place so he could be cooperate. Kaz and Alan, at his request, held his arms pinned to the round while Skylar bowed over him. she was quite uncomfortable with having to pull an eyelash out, so she first searched for one that was already going to be falling anyway. When she couldn't find one, she quickly grabbed one and pulled.

Oliver screamed loudly and for one moment, Skylar felt slightly guilty for having him suffer. Yet, she quickly lost it when she put the eyelashes – she accidentally pulled out multiple – in the cauldron and it temporarily turned green again. Now they only needed to get 'from an animal, a claw'. Skylar turned around and stared at Alan as Kaz helped Oliver to get up. Oliver covered the eye where the eyelashes had been and now, like Skylar, started staring at Alan with Kaz.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Alan asked, at first not sure why they would stare at him. It was an unnecessary question, for the next second he realized why they looked at him: the third line. He gulped. "Oh no."

Before he could do anything, Skylar loudly yelled "BOO!". Alan shrieked loudly and then turned into a salmon. Kaz shook his head. "No, Alan, you have to be something with claws. Try again!" he said, looking at Skylar. She yelled again and Alan changed into a cat. Kaz soon had to get the nail clippers again. He didn't complain – they were already glad Alan had decided to cooperate.

After cutting part of the claw, they had to put the nail clippers back and they put the claw into the cauldron. Alan – still as a cat – sat on top of the crate, looking over the edge to see the result. When Kaz joined them, the substance slowly went from green to blue and then to black. The substance became thinner until it was nothing but air.

The odor disappeared and was replaced by rose perfume. On the bottom of the now barely empty cauldron, they could see a wet moon-shaped stone. Just a few drops from this stone would be enough to open another box. When Kaz picked up this stone, the lights turned green.

Was it easy to choose? No, because there were multiple options again, and this time there were more than two.

* * *

 **Options left: moon,** _sun,_ **eye, mouth, finger, rose,** _sunflower,_ _twenty-eight_ **, gem, hand, heart**


	7. Kiss the girl

**You have no idea how long I've been waiting to write this particular chapter! If you look at the title of this chapter, you know what the next task is and, if you paid attention during the trailer, who will have to do it! Also, it's the first time ever I write a kiss scene in a story, so I hope I did it well. I don't really doubt it, but it still will be hilarious. But first, the reviews:**

 _TKDP: Thanks for reviewing! And I get excited when you say you're excited! Can't wait to read your reaction of this chapter. You're really starting to understand the bad guy! We'll see what they choose at the beginning._

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _For now, anything still is possible - except for the sunflower, sun and twenty-eight. Other than that, anything can happen! Thanks for reviewing!_

 _TTLKABC: Thanks for reviewing! Yes, I know, they just barged in and ruin the moment - there's nothing I could do. It can be any box, but we'll see if they one they pick is the right one._

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

* * *

Alan couldn't take his eyes off of the stone in Kaz' hands, just as Skylar, Oliver and Kaz. They had to be very careful with this stone – just a few drops were enough to open a box, which made it extremely easy to accidentally pick a different box. Kaz figured that was true, and he walked away from the boxes, hoping this would be good enough until they've figured out which boxes were possible.

"So, Kaz started, "does someone mind to take this?" He felt quite uneasy holding it, not wanting to be the person to kaz things up, if he messed it up. Alan took it from him and then he continued, "We've got the moon, eye, finger, maybe the hand…. Is there any other possibility?" Alan barely listened to what Kaz was saying, afraid he would be the one to accidentally let a few drops fall on a box. So he walked even further away from the boxes, but he wasn't really looking as to where he placed his feet. That's how he tripped and the stone flew through the air, somehow managing to fly behind him.

The three friends tried to catch it but none of them actually touched the stone before it safely landed on the ground. That may not seem too bad, but it actually hit the box with the finger before landing on the ground and it left some drops on the lid, which slowly opened out of itself. Unfortunately, it was completely empty.

"Wait!" Oliver then yelled, coming to a realization, "I know which box it is! It's the one with the—" Then Oliver was dragged towards the paintings because Ayar had heard him talk. But that would mean the person who had opened the box – the one who had dropped the stone – would go unpunished. Not much later, Alan screamed like a little girl as the lights went out. When they were turned on again, both Alan and Oliver were trapped in a painting.

"What the—" Kaz began, then looked up to face the man in the mirror, "Hey! You were only gonna take one person at a time!" Ayar appeared in his mirror.

"I know, but I was in doubt," he semi-lied to them, "I may be a spirit, but I am not omniscient. If I picked the one who did not open the box, he would go unpunished. I could not let that happen."

"Give us the next task," Skylar then demanded – _this is so unfair! Oliver hasn't done anything_ – and she was smart to keep her thoughts for herself. The ghost nodded.

"I hope you are familiar with modern fairy tales. Reenact a part of a fairy tale, to be formed with the remaining symbols, wearing the clothes provided. One act is more than enough." He then disappeared to give them some privacy and some time to figure out what exactly they have to do. In the meantime, the two remaining crates had opened, revealing some clothes they were supposed to wear when they were doing… something, they hadn't figured it out yet.

"So what do we have to do?" Kaz wondered. Skylar luckily had an idea of what they had to do, repeating what Ayar told them, using words and phrases in a way Kaz would understand it.

"There are some boxes left. If we combine the symbols, they form a fairy tale. And then, we have to play out one part of that fairy tale." Skylar didn't have much experiences with fairy tales, but she had watched _Frozen_ with Gus. She does know which movies Disney has produced and the titles, but isn't very familiar with the content. Kaz, on the other hand, grew up with eleven siblings, such as younger and older sisters who would ask their parents to put up a Disney movie and Kaz sometimes watched them too out of boredom.

They looked at the different boxes. Moon, eye, rose, mouth, gem, hand, heart. What were the possibilities of a fairy tale? The heart definitely as the symbol of love, so that didn't really help them – the rose could also be an element of love. Gem, the princes and princesses probably were all very rich (even Mulan, not a princess, was from a rich family). And that's where Kaz gave up and Skylar continued to think about the other symbols. Eventually, she linked eyes and moon with each other, for the eyes were closed when the moon rose – but the hand, rose and mouth were still a mystery to her.

"I know what we have to do," Skylar eventually said, not sounding particularly happy. Kaz turned his head and then figured out that, whatever it was, he may not like it.

"Oh, what it is?" he asked.

"I don't know which fairy tale it is we're looking for," Skylar admitted – she still hadn't figured out that part –, "but I do know what part we have to enact. There are some fairy tales where the prince kisses the princess awake, right?" Kaz nodded.

"Yes, there are, why do you—" Then, he realized why Skylar had asked that question. He brought his hand to his mouth, shocked and annoyed at the same time. he closed his eyes and started to shake his head. "You've gotta be kidding me. You and I have _to kiss_?" This response made perfectly clear he did not look forward to playing this scene from whatever fairy tale it came. Yet, if they wanted to save their friends, it was something they had to do.

Skylar was not as shocked as Kaz, though she was at a certain level. Kisses on Caldera weren't meant for lovers only, but also your closest friends and the people you trusted. Kisses on the mouth were only for lovers, the cheeks were for the friends.

"Yes, we have to," she said, "but if you can think of another scene from another fairy tale, I'd like to hear your suggestion." Unfortunately, he couldn't think of another scene which had something to do with these symbols, so they were stuck with kissing each other.

"You, know, this is gonna be so hard," Kaz eventually said, "First, I do not want to kiss you. We're friends, it'd just be awkward. Second, Oliver can see everything that's happening. He's gonna be so pissed when this is over. Third of all, have you seen these clthes we're supposed to wear?" He picked the red cape and hat with the red feather, the only parts of his costume, "Yeah, I'm definitely not wearing these."

Skylar sighed. "You have to wear them. If you don't, we might fail the task and…" She trailed off, not wanting to continue talking. They both did not want to fail, as they still needed to save their friends. They were all that was left. One lazy Normo and one fallen hero. They had to succeed.

After one minute of silence, Kaz groaned and rolled his eyes. "Fine! I'll put 'em on, but don't laugh." Then, he grabbed the cape and clumsily tried to put it on. As he didn't put on capes often, he struggled with it for a little while before he had it in the right place. He grabbed the hat and placed it on his head, turning around to face Skylar.

"See? I look ri-" he stopped talking when he noticed Skylar already wore her costume. She must've put on those clothes while he was struggling with the cape. It was a light blue vest and skirt, which could've easily been a dress when the two pieces were sowed together. He didn't continue talking because he was surprised she had put on her costume faster than him and was clearly waiting for him to be done.

"Okay then," she started, walking away a few feet from him. "I'll lay down here, you come from there and then, you… you kiss me." She then lay down on her back on the stage, ready for it to get it over with while Kaz was still mentally preparing for what he had to do. Eventually, Skylar had to call out in order for him to actually come over and start.

"Are you ready?" She asked, and got her answer five seconds later. "Well…" Kaz said, not really knowing whether he was ready or not. Yet, the time would come when he would really have to do it, so why delay it? He walked closer to Skylar and stopped next to her, noticing she had closed her eyes. _That's a good idea,_ he thought. Too bad he couldn't do that. What if he kissed her, but not on the lips? She'd probably be very mad.

He sat on his knees and noticed his hands were slightly shaking. He leaned in closer and closer. At one point, he stopped – he could feel her breath from his current position – and then, he lost it.

"I can't do this!" he yelled when he pulled away from her. Skylar sat straight up, seeing how Kaz seriously was having trouble with doing this one small thing that didn't necessarily need to mean anything. She watched Oliver for one second, and that was all she needed to see Oliver stare at the scene open-mouthed. She'd rather give her first kiss to Oliver, but faith had decided it had to be Kaz instead. Hopefully, this wouldn't make things awkward between the three of them.

"Kaz Gordon, I never thought I'd say this to you, but keep it together and kiss me!" She said, and then continued, "It's not easy, I know. Maybe it helps to pretend like it's not me, but a girl you like the most. That's what I did until you pulled away."

"You pretended I was Oliver?" Skylar's mouth fell open in surprise, while Kaz just looked at her with that smile on his face, "Look, we both know Oliver is head over heels for you and you've got feelings for him, too. I noticed when Alan was gonna get the candle – I saw you two were standing real close together. I couldn't see your face and couldn't hear you talk, but yes, it was that obvious. I thought it was better to interrupt you, to settle it after we get this done. Guess that's gonna take a while."

She glared at Kaz, annoyed that he and Alan had purposely interrupted their special moment. "Just do it." She lay back down and closed her eyes. Kaz sighed, then thought of what would've happened if Oliver hadn't been put in a painting.

Then things went rather fast. Skylar had thought it would take him just as much time as with the first attempt, but he was ready within ten seconds and not much later, he had pressed his lips against hers, keeping them there for not much longer than two seconds. He pulled away quickly and they both looked around.

The lights under the boxes had already turned green. "It worked," Skylar said what they both obviously knew and Kaz sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness. I did _not_ want to do that again." they both got up and looked at the remaining options which they had already used to figure out which fairy tale it was. Eventually, they just ended up knowing which scene they had to play, but neither knew from which fairy tale it came.

As they looked around, they could see the facial expressions of everyone trapped. Oliver, as Kaz predicted, was pissed that the two of them had shared a kiss. Most of the others seemed annoyed by Oliver's continuous rant about it – his lips couldn't stop moving. Only Gus and Kenny weren't annoyed. Gus was caught up in his own world, they guessed, and Kenny nodded in approval, as if he gave his brother permission to date Skylar, even if he knew it would never happen anyway.

"After this kiss, it has got to be the mouth," Kaz said, walking straight to the box with the mouth – this one was located on top of the last crate. He had to climb this crate in order to reach this box and decided to sit on top of this crate, legs crossed, to open it.

"Wait!" Skylar said, luckily before Kaz opened the box, "Are you sure it's the right one? It could be every one of these symbols." Kaz considered her words for a moment, then shrugged.

"Can be all, can be none. Ayar did indirectly confess he had lied when we had to count the roses. This might as well be the clue. It might not have appeared as much, but it was definitely very hard. Besides, I guess that if Alan and Oliver were here and we were in a painting, they would've had to kiss. Anyone would pick the mouth."

Skylar, still a little wary, nodded and waited for the result. Kaz opened the box and looked in it. He immediately threw it away, a little angered, when he realized this one was empty as well. Skylar was ready to help him get off the crate. The biggest mistake Kaz made right now was to first stand up instead of moving to the edge of the crate.

He sank through the wooden side, holding on to the side, trying not to let go. "Skylar, the crate!" he yelled, completely panicking. If he went through the wood, his legs should now be inside this crate. Without losing too much time, Skylar opened the crate.

Kaz's upper half of his body (which hadn't gone through the wood yet) was still visible, but there was no sign of his legs. When he noticed the shocked expression on Skylar's face, he looked down. he bowed down far enough to see his legs weren't there, while he could still definitely feel them as he struggled to free himself from Ayar's invisible grasp.

"Where are my legs?" he yelled in terror. The grasp on his leg intensified and Skylar wasn't strong enough to help him. He got pulled into the crate, maybe into a parallel dimension – that was the only explanation she dared to give this situation. She closed the crate and not much later, she could see how Kaz was trapped in the second-to-last painting. There still was one left, one meant for Skylar should she fail the last task.

No help from friends. She had to do this one all alone.

"Ayar, I want the next task," she said. There was no time to lose. Ayar appeared in the mirror again. she actually grew nervous. What task would he give her now?

"This last task cannot be simpler. Find the exit within a certain span of time. If you fail or run out of time, you join them and you and your friends will be erased from existence. If you succeed, you have one last chance to save your friends." Skylar barely knew what she had to do – find the exit, yes, but were there even exits other than the ones she knew?

She didn't have much time to think, for almost immediately after Ayar stopped talking, everything went black.


	8. Find the exit

**Here's the second-to-last chapter of the story! I'm sorry for the kinda late chapter, but school is being a pain in the butt lately. Anyway, my exams are coming closer and I already want to tell you I'll update this story mid-December, when I'm done studying. But let's not think about that right now - let's just enjoy this chapter (after the reviews, off course):**

 _TKDP:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, the kiss did go well for both, but Oliver still won't be happy about it. He's just trapped, don't worry. And the last task... it's not that simple. It will be explained in this chapter._

 _TTLKABC:_ _I don't like Skaz either, but it had to be done. Kaz is okay for now, so let's hope Skylar can comlete the next task. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _Thanks for reviewing! Yeah, they kissed. Ayar wanted them to do it, so they had to. And yes, Oliver will most certainly have a talk with Kaz - he's gonna have some explaining to do. I was thinking that, too! But then, we'll have to hope she completes the last task with success._

 _Skoliver4Ever:_ _I didn't update that soon because school demanded me to do more homework and study for the exams. If you want to know when exactly I'll update this story: it will probably be after my exams. Be patient; I will update and I'm sure it'll have some Skoliver too. Thanks for reviewing!_

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

* * *

When Skylar opened her eyes, she wasn't standing on the stage anymore. She probably wasn't even in that building, for that matter. Instead, she was trapped – no, not inside a painting, not yet – in a small space. It was about 2 meters high and when she touched the sides with her hands, her arms didn't have to be stretched. Two square meters wasn't enough for her to move around in here. it didn't help that this particular 'cage' made her feel claustrophobic.

"Hey!" she eventually yelled, "Let me go!" she had immediately suspected Ayar had placed her there. not much later, Ayar responded.

"You will have to wait a little longer," said Ayar's disembodied voice. "It is nearly finished, and then you can start with the next task." Skylar frowned.

"What's almost finished?" she asked, but received no answer. Ayar apparently was too busy completing something to answer her question. Instead of worrying about what came next, she tried to figure out what was going on. She gave up rather soon, for not knowing how this was possible was more than enough for her now. Ayar might explain what this was all about when he was finished.

Not much later, the wall in front of her sank through the ground. Skylar gladly walked out of that small room and then found herself in a similar room, only bigger. There was light but there was no source to be seen. The walls were the same dull gray and she was faced with three possible ways out - left, right or straight ahead.

"What is this place?" Skylar demanded, not wanting to go in one of the three corridors before she knew what it was and where it would lead her. Fortunately, Ayar did want to tell her what it was.

"This is a maze," his disembodied voice responded, "You have to find the exit. If you fail, you and your friends will be erased from existence. You have one hour." He remained silent for the rest of the time. Skylar initially had thought she had to find the exit of the building. But a maze... Yeah, that certainly was getting complicated. She needed no more motivation and ran into the middle corridor.

Left, right, right, left, straight ahead, left, left, right. Whenever there was an intersection or when roads crossed, she quickly made her choice and trusted her heart to lead her the right way. She had no idea how much time she spent running around and hoping this would lead her to the exit.

Eventually, when she once again turned to the left, she had reached some sort of room again. It was similar to the room at the beginning, but instead of three possibilities, there was one lighter gray area and a lever next to it. She immediately walked to the lever, ready to continue her way through the labyrinth. Then, she heard the voice.

"Connie, don't!" She turned her head and her mouth fell open. Her focus had been on the lever and the lighter gray area that probably was a door that she hadn't noticed Kaz' brother Kenny. He was standing behind a glass plate - the other three sides were the same walls as the maze. There was no room for him to move and he couldn't do anything but stay in his current position. He couldn't move because half the space was already filled with sand, reaching up to his stomach. He looked distressed, afraid to be buried and he had pressed his hands against the glass, looking at Skylar. From behind his back, a stream of sand slowly filled his cage.

She didn't even realize she had walked closer. "Kenny?" The man in the sand nodded, "How did you get in there?"

"I dunno," he even sounded afraid, "I was minding my own business until the guy put me here! This is so uncomfortable. Really, the sand creeps everywhere!" According to him, it even crept where the sun doesn't shine. You could see he'd do anything to get himself out of this situation.

"I'll get you out of there, I promise." Skylar promised, knowing she couldn't do it right away. Time was still running, and she had only one hour to find the exit. She walked back to the lever, but even when she hadn't reached it yet, Kenny protested again

"Don't pull the lever!" He sounded truly terrified. Skylar turned her head to the ex-villain.

"Why?" She then asked. Kenny opened his mouth, closed it again, then sighed and eventually decided to say it anyway.

"You can't pass through the door. It's just a ruse. If you pull the lever, no door will open. It'll just bury me by filling this cage with sand. I'm begging you, Connie, please don't do it. I don't want to die like this." He was sincere. She guessed he knew she had to find the exit, but she was having her doubts. Even if she didn't really know him well, she did knew some things about him.

"Are you sure?" She then asked, to see if she was right. Kenny nodded with a sad look on his face.

"Yes I am. Now, don't waste time on me. You can do it. I believe in you." He said. Skylar nodded, but she wasn't very convinced. There still was something off about him. Why didn't he say anything about the kiss she had with his little brother? And why did he call her Connie while he got to know her as Skylar Storm?

"October 24, 2014," Skylar began, once again coming closer to him, "Snowstorm was brought to the hospital with severe wounds, lots of them were burns. Who made Fred pick her up?" Then, a very familiar expression appeared on Kenny's face.

"Why do you ask that question?" Kenny then asked, but Skylar crossed her arms and looked at him with an annoyed look on her face.

"That's not important right now," she said, "just answer it, please." She could see how Kenny tried to think of a way to answer her question. She already figured that he wouldn't be able to give the right answer.

"I dunno, an arsonist?" That apparently was his best guess. Skylar sighed.

"I need a name," Skylar said and waited for Kenny to give a name. Luckily, he figured that if he didn't answer, she would remain here and waste her time. That's why he eventually decided to give her a name.

"Jack Stevens?" His tone suggested he was just guessing and that he had picked a different name. Skylar nodded, finally able to properly draw conclusions from everything he's said. She placed her hands in her hips.

"Impressive," she replied, "but it's the wrong answer." Without further ado, she turned around and walked to the lever. When she had reached it, she heard Kenny protest.

"But I..." Then Skylar interrupted him.

"Yes, you." She said, "It was you! The Incinerator did it as a last act of evilness before the League of Heroes took you in." She grabbed the lever. She could hear him reply a confused "What?" before pulling the lever. She had recognized his facial expression - she saw it every time Kaz had trouble understanding what was going on. Ayar had no idea the Mighty Med existed, nor that superheroes and villains were real, nor that he had already met three and imprisoned two.

The door opened and fake Kenny, who stopped moving when she pulled the lever, got buried beneath the sand. Skylar didn't look behind as she ran through the opening, towards her possible next task. Challenges like Kenny's were enough for her to lose precious time. She had no idea how much time she had left, but she did know she had to hurry.

* * *

Not much later, she heard Ayar's voice. "Thirty minutes." Had she already spent half an hour in the maze? If there were more rooms like the one she had just passed, how would she ever find the exit in time?

 _Don't think about that,_ she thought to herself. Thinking distracted her from running around in the maze and trying to find the exit. Besides, thinking about whether to turn right or left was a good alternative. She didn't slow down once as she raced through the halls.

Ten minutes later, she stumbled across another room. there was a door at the other side – she immediately ran to it –, but there was no lever. Instead, she needed to find a key so she could place it in the key-shaped hole next to it.

When she turned her head, her heart did a double-take. Sitting there, leaning against the wall, was Oliver. He looked annoyed and tired, and in his hands he held the key. "Oliver!" she said, being cautious because of her previous encounter, and only then he noticed her walking closer towards him.

"Gonna try again?" he asked. He didn't even bother to get up as he said it. Skylar frowned.

"Try what again?" she wondered.

"Take the key," he said, looking at it, "you know you can't pull it out of my hands."

"I haven't been here yet," Skylar then said, not really understanding what Oliver meant.

"Don't lie to me. Off course you have. Pretending you haven't been here isn't going to work." Skylar opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. While she had been talking to a fake Kenny, Oliver (if he even was the real Oliver) had been visited by a fake Skylar.

"Oliver, I'm not a fake." She said, hoping Ayar wasn't being cruel by placing him in such a situation. Oliver finally looked her in the eyes, and she knew by the way he looked at her that he didn't trust her.

"Prove it," he said, "Prove that you're no fake."

Skylar didn't hesitate. "I'm Skylar Storm, not Connie Valentine. You and Kaz work at the Mighty Med for Horace Diaz, who loves bridges. Kaz' brother is a villain. Recently, you and Kaz got the power of flight." _And I still think it's unfair you got powers while you're Normos and that I still am powerless,_ she added in her mind, but she didn't say it out loud.

Oliver's expression changed. He too knew Ayar had no idea villains and heroes really existed, nor did he knew Skylar's name wasn't Connie, like she had been called by the others. "Skylar?" he got up and came closer. She nodded and smiled. The next moment, they were hugging.

"Skylar, I'm so glad to see you. here's the key," he handed the key to her, "Go, there's no time to waste."

"Come with me," she then asked him, but he shook his head.

"I would if I could, but I can't. I've tried." Skylar nodded. She could no longer stay here and he had to stay. "Also," he then added, "Now is not the time about the kiss between you and Kaz. We'll talk about it later, when this is over. Now, go! Don't waste any more time." He watched as she walked over to the door and placed the key where it was supposed to be. One last time she looked back at him and then she disappeared into the maze.

Oliver didn't leave her mind as she ran through the halls and turned right and left. As time passed, she did not come across a possible third room. she started to wonder if she was going in the right direction, if she better had turned left or right. But she continued running, never stood still and hoped this was the right way, even if she seriously doubted it. To forget her doubts, she sped up. She ran faster and faster until she was back in the room with the three possible ways.

She couldn't believe her eyes. She had just been running around in circles? She spent nearly an hour trying to find an exit, and here she was, back where she began running. What if she had just waited here that hour, would it have counted as finding the exit or would Ayar consider it lazy?

She could just ask him right away, because Ayar appeared in front of her. It was weird seeing him standing there, seeing his entire body instead of just his face and his cowl. There wasn't much time talk, mostly because Ayar wasn't in a talking mood. The maze behind her disappeared and not soon after, it was dark again.

* * *

When Skylar opened her eyes again, she was back on the stage. Everyone except Ayar was staring at her, but she only had eyes for Oliver. He had forgiven her, though he will never be unable to forget the kiss between her and Kaz. Then she noticed the lights had turned green again for the last time.

This was it. The moment of truth.

Moon, eye, finger, rose, gem, hand, heart. And only one of them contained the solution to the problem. If there even was a solution and this game wasn't rigged. Eventually, she decided to try and find the answer by repeating all answers of the previous task to figure out which symbols were still possible.

 _The first task, solving the riddle. The right answer was flower. Spark chose the sunflower, but it was wrong. So we still have the rose._

 _The second task, decorating the sun god's statue. Kenny chose the sun, but it was wrong. It could also be the gem and moon still._

 _The third task, counting the roses. The only right answer was twenty-eight, but Jordan still got trapped. But we had to count the roses. Wait... Didn't Alan say the jewels were red like a rose? And there was rose perfume as well._

 _The fairy tale… didn't Kaz have to dress up like the Prince from Sleeping Beauty? His clothes were red, too!_

Through these thoughts, she made her choice. She walked towards the box with the rose. I hope I'm right, she thought before opening the box. To her big surprise, there was something laying in it! It was a small bottle with a colorless liquid inside of it. The cap could be easily taken off of the bottle. It didn't smell like anything.

Instead of just drinking it, she first asked Ayar what it did. Ayar appeared one last time in the old mirror. "There are two options. The doors are open. If you drink it, your friends will be freed. Only you will be trapped inside a painting. If you choose not to drink it, you are free to leave and your friends will be permanently trapped." Then, Ayar remained in the mirror, waiting for the girl to make a choice.

Skylar looked at the bottle and at the doors. She walked to the doors and pulled. They were opened again! But she didn't walk out of there. She went back to the stage, took the cap and drank the liquid.

"You are willing to give up your life?" Ayar wondered out loud, "Who are you?" he then asked. Skylar turned to the mirror.

"I am Skylar Storm and I am a superhero," it may not be smart to say it out loud, but she was going to be inside a painting, so it doesn't matter if anyone heard her, "My life's purpose is to protect Normos from evil and villains. I may have lost my powers, but I continue to protect them and sacrifice myself so they can live."

"Then I guess there's a storm coming." Ayar responded before the invisible rope around their ankles also pulled her in. She hit the ground and didn't resist. She knew she had saved Oliver, Kaz and the others. She was a hero, who had just done the most heroic and selfless act of all: sacrificing herself so others could live.

But that wasn't the last thought before the darkness came back. She closed her eyes as one last phrase came to mind.

 _He stole my line._


	9. Have a happy end

**And I'm back with the very last chapter of this short story! Let's see if Skylar's sacrifice has saved her friends. But before that: thanks for reading and possibly reviewing, favoriting and following the story. Thanks for the support you've given me. It took me longer than estimated to write, but I had a blast and I hope to see you soon. But first, this last chapter and my responses to your reviews:**

 _TKDP:_ _Thanks for reviewing! We know Ayar can lie, so let's see what happens now. Yes, it was the rose. And off course she would give herself up for her friends, she's SKylar Storm. I was thinking the same! I was considering to cut it out, but eventually stayed. Here's the update!_

 _Skoliver4Ever:_ _Here's the last update with a tiny little bit of Skoliver. Thanks for reviewing!_

 _PurpleNicole531:_ _Thanks for reviewing! I like the last sentence, too! I thought it'd be something Skylar would immediately do. It would save her friends, after all. And if I'm not mistaken, yes, I think it indeed was one of your guesses. I remember reading it and thinking: did she read my mind? And here's the last chapter!_

 **Enjoy!**

 **-Writer207**

* * *

They knew something was changing when they had that feeling again. Only this time, it didn't feel like he was going to pull their ankles, but like he was lifting them up. Their sight was blocked for a short amount of time and before they even knew it, they were standing back on the stage.

Nothing much had changed. The door was opened and the boxes were nowhere to be seen. The grail, with the lid closing it, stood on one of the crates. And there the friends stood, glad they no longer had to spend time in those paintings. They spontaneously started to hug each other – except for Kenny, who just awkwardly watched as the teenagers celebrated being freed.

"We're free!" Kaz exclaimed, unable to control his happiness.

"How did that happen?" Spark asked, voicing everyone's thoughts on the matter. Nobody seemed to be able to think of a reasonable explanation, except that Skylar Storm had saved them from their imprisonment. Oliver already turned around to congratulate her and to discuss some important matters.

"Connie, you…" and then, he finally realized Skylar wasn't anywhere in sight. The door stood open, yes, but he knew her long enough to know she would never in her entire life leave hostages while they were still held captive. And he knew Ayar wouldn't tell her to leave in order to save her friends. There was no explanation for that, just a gut feeling. He grew scared. Her absence terrified him and completely unnecessary thoughts about her slipped into his mind. was is possible he took her anyway? But then why did he release them and only took Skylar?

He shouted her name, alarming the others around him. they started to look around and they too deduced that she wasn't around. "Where's Connie?" Kaz asked out loud, sounding slightly less scared than Oliver. As they searched for Skylar, something caught Jordan's attention.

"Gus, what are you doing?" If she had seen it just a few moments later, they would have been in trouble again for Gus had the grail in his hands, ready to pull the lid off of it for the second time. He looked up, apparently not knowing what made her stop him.

"Maybe this is the way we'll get Connie back!" He said, sounding innocent. He genuinely thought they could save Skylar this way, but that grail had been the cause of today's problems and none of his companions were looking forward to going through that trouble again.

"Oh no, you don't," Kenny said as he grasped the grail and pulled it out of Gus' hands. He pressed on the lid, as to make sure it was still stuck on the grail, and then continued, "I do not want to be trapped in one of those again. Here." He extended the arm with the grail to Spark, who seemed taken aback. She thought he'd keep it for himself.

"What are you—"

"I know I can trust you to keep it as far away from him as possible." Kenny said, for the first time ever looking at the hero properly. He hoped she would be able to guess what she meant with 'him' – that was not just Gus he was talking about.

"Wait!" Alan then said, "If she's not here, does it mean that she…" He trailed off. There was no need to finish that sentence anyway, for everyone knew exactly what he meant. Oliver nodded.

"The Mona Lisa," Kaz said. There were only two paintings left when he get trapped into one. One of them was the Mona Lisa, the other one he didn't know. But he did know he had been stuck in the painting he didn't know because the Mona Lisa had been placed higher than the other paintings – he compared it with looking through a window on the ground floor. If he'd been inside the Mona Lisa, he would've been looking through a window on the first floor.

"Connie!" Oliver shouted her name, having to be careful at the same time so he wouldn't accidentally shout out 'Skylar' instead of her Normo name. But they just saw the fake painting and that mysterious smile only seemed to mock them.

"She's supposed to be there?" Jordan voiced everyone's thoughts, "Why can't we see her?" Yet another mystery they had to solve, but this time without any real consequence. Skylar was in there, somewhere. Maybe it took them some time for her to appear. At least when Oliver saw her he'd know she was alright. She may be trapped, but there was no way she would be harmed. This waiting was worse than anything he could imagine.

"Maybe she _became_ the Mona Lisa!" Gus suggested. He wanted to help, really, but he always had been the one with the weird ideas. Alan, who didn't know Gus as long as the others had, could barely hold in his laughter.

"That's a stupid idea," he then said.

"Says the guy who was barely helpful," Jordan then said. She didn't say it to defend us in any way, she just thought his opinion mattered less based on his input during the tasks when she was present. Alan chose to ignore her comment and instead watched how a desperate Oliver was still trying to get into contact with Skylar, who may just be forced to hide behind the image of the painted lady.

"I'm here!" Everyone jumped up when they heard Skylar shout that. They all turned their attention to the painting, as they were certain that had been the source of her voice. Oliver scanned the painting for any sign of the girl he loved, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. And why could they hear her voice when they weren't able to communicate with those trapped in the first place? Maybe Gus had been right…

No, that's nonsense. Ayar didn't do that. He just put people in the paintings, he didn't let them merge with the painted people. Giving her the ability to talk may have been part of Skylar's imprisonment

"Connie?" Oliver said, sounding like he hesitated a little. He had no idea what happened in there, but he did know he wouldn't take his eyes off of the painting. The next time Skylar spoke, Oliver saw nothing moving inside the painting, and the Mona Lisa herself remained in place too. and yet, he could hear what she had to say.

"Turn around!" Surprised by this request, he turned around and at the end of the room, at the back row of seats, there stood Skylar. She was grinning when she saw her again and Oliver did the same. She walked towards them as Oliver looked at the painting and back to her. Happily shouting her name, he came rushing to her. Skylar extended her arms and when their paths crossed, he gave her a big hug. After some seconds, he said "I'm so glad you're okay." and together, they walked back to the stage.

"How did you get there?" Spark wondered out loud, pointing at the back of the theater hall, "I thought you –"

"I was," Skylar said, "It was awful!" Even if she might have been there for a short amount of time, she had not liked the feeling of being trapped. She could barely imagine they had been in there for much longer than her.

"How did you escape?" Kenny asked. Skylar shrugged.

"I didn't really escape," she said, thoughts trailing off to the conversation she had with Ayar earlier. They had talked about her, mostly, and whether her friends would abandon her or not. She had explained her current situation to him – he's at least thousand years old, he can't possibly share the superhero secret with anyone else – and Ayar had liked to compare these heroes with gods and the villains with faithless followers of evil. He told her she reminded him of his sun god, whom he believed has long died because his god had lost all of its worshippers. Not wanting to see the same thing happen to one of the new, modern 'gods' – a young female warrior no less – he released her, warning her not to open the grail again. He would not be so merciful next time. in return, she had promised to always remember him and his god. It would be impossible to forget this weird adventure anyway.

"But that's not important," she eventually said, "We're back together and that's all that matters." She left away the part about not opening the grail again, but no such warning was needed. None of her friends would ever want to be in such a situation again.

"What time is it?" Alan asked, for he didn't wear a watch nor did he carry his phone with him. the other soon responded with the time, rather surprised with the current time. This adventure with Ayar had cost them two hours to fix.

"Wow, is that the time?" Spark then said out loud, "I should go home now." She had never intended to stay longer than two hours anyway. There were still some matters she had to take care of – matters with very big consequences if they were allowed to run through the streets.

"But we haven't figured out the script yet," Oliver said, reminding them all of the reason they were here in the first place: to write the script of the play they were supposed to perform next week. and now two hours had passed and they weren't able to put any time into their script.

Then Kenny started to laugh as if someone had just told him a hilarious joke. Everyone stayed to find out why Kenny suddenly burst out in laughter. It took him a couple of minutes to finally calm down enough to answer his brother's question: "What are you laughing about?"

"Haven't figured out the script…" Kenny said, and he had big trouble not to start laughing again. "Dudes, you must be really blind!"

"What is it, Kenny?" Jordan asked. Kenny eventually stopped laughing, but that didn't mean he also lost that big smile on his face. As he was smiling widely, he explained what he was laughing about.

"Seriously, don't you know what just happened to us? This is the perfect story for a play!" He hoped the others shared his opinion, because he didn't want a friend of Kaz' to deliver a play that wasn't nearly as good as the improvised one last year. "Sure, we probably have to adapt some things so it doesn't have to take two hours to tell it, but I guarantee you, this will be a hit. People will adore our creation!"

"Our creation?" Kaz nearly immediately replied, "You weren't even supposed to be involved." Kenny nodded.

"Can't help it, but now I'm in. Where will you find your eighth actor with such a short amount of time? Besides, I do need a hobby."

"You, a hobby?" Spark, who still did not dare to trust the ex-villain, then said "What about that costume? Isn't that your hobby?" Kenny had forgotten that he still was wearing his old costume – without the mask, that is – and he gave her his most serious look.

"You know that's work. I really need something which I enjoy and that won't give me too much stress." Living as a villain was rather chill, except for the times they fought. Living as a hero was more difficult and required more fighting, more teamwork and above all, more paperwork. It was just a job like any other, except you didn't get paid to fight crime in tights.

"How are we going to do it?" Gus then said, "Look around you. We can't just put people inside paintings or mirrors!" He did make a good point. How were they going to fix it?

"But we can place people behind paintings," Kenny said. When he figured nobody was getting what he meant, he started to explain, "Look, we don't need paintings. What about glass plates with those motives on it? We can keep the space behind it dark until we need it to illuminate the one sitting behind the glass plate, making it look like they have been sucked in there – while they're just sitting behind it." The others nodded. They began to realize this was actually a good idea. They didn't need to create a new story, they just needed to piece together their adventure and when rehearsing, make up what they thought they had said and hope nobody would forget what was going to happen next.

Then they just needed to find someone to make those glass plates and someone to play the role of Ayar. They quickly decided to have someone record his lines and film this person while in costume and project it on the mirror – or, in this case, something that wouldn't make it too hard to see what was projected on it.

Then, they all returned home. They had decided to come together before work and after school to go over the details and rehearse. Everyone went their separate ways – all except for Oliver, Kaz, Skylar and Alan. The four of them went to the hospital, because it was time for them to get to work.

As soon as they arrived in the hospital and Alan had gone to his room, Oliver turned to Kaz and Skylar.

"I think it's time you two explained what was going on when you kissed on stage." Kaz and Skylar looked at each other.

"You explain it," Kaz said, "If it weren't for you, I might not have had the guts to do it." And with those words, Kaz left Skylar and Oliver so they would get a moment alone. Kaz knew he could've easily explained it himself, but he felt that Skylar had to be the one to tell Oliver what really happened. Maybe then, after the explanation, they could get the moment Kaz had interrupted after finding a candle.


End file.
